According to Surfshark-owned Incogni, after analysing the privacy and security practises of the top 1,000 paid and unpaid apps available on the Google Play Store, more than half of apps share your data with a third party.
Meta's apps know almost everything about you, having collected 36 of 37 data points. However, they admit to sharing only four data points.
According to the study, free apps share seven times as many data points as paid apps.
"This could be due to the fact that free apps are downloaded 400 times more frequently than paid apps on average." Overall, this data appears to confirm the widely held belief that "free apps aren't free: you pay with your data," Incogni explained.
"What's more troubling is that many apps share your location history: 13.4% of apps share your approximate location, while 3.85% share your precise location," Incogni said.
Furthermore, some apps share third-party photos, videos, files, personal messages, race, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation. Apps not only sell your data to third parties like marketing agencies and data brokers, but half of them may not encrypt your data in transit, leaving it vulnerable to attackers if communications are intercepted.
The risks associated with the spread of your personal information can be quite serious. Users are vulnerable to threats such as data breaches, identity theft, stalking, and online harassment when they share their data. Many internet users may become victims of digital redlining, a phenomenon.
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Data Breaches
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